My Education Towards Racism

By Edwin Kreulen

February 4, 1998

In the Dutch national daily Trouw, Wednesday 4 February 1998, the editor
for Education, Edwin Kreulen, a former student at the The Hague Waldorf
school, wrote a long article, "My education towards racism".

Edwin Kreulen:

"According to page 1 of my [Waldorf] exercise book, all races originate
from a kind of primeval man, who lived ten thousand years ago in the
central continent of Atlantis; which, however, had to perish 'because of
abuse of the divine wisdom. On the bottom of the sea, one can still find
the remains of this continent as a long extensive reef'.

... 'With the first Southern races, the natural forces of earth and sun
have worked to blacken their skins. With the Northern races, the inner
forces of light became stronger, which made them whites.' 'The races became
stuck at different stages in their development from childhood to old age.'
Then comes a classification, linking the black race to childhood, the brown
race to a fourteen year old, and the whites to all ages ...

In this very chart, I thought the linking with parts of the body was as
least as remarkable. According to the exercise book, each race corresponds
to a part of the human body. Senses and brains are linked to whites,
metabolism to blacks. And only the white person has a straight face. Eg,
the yellow race has 'slanted eyes, a hollow face, flat nose, and coarse
black hair.'

Next, the exercise book discusses all races individually; except for us,
the whites, for we obviously know about that already. ... 'All negroes
still keep a childish expression on their faces for a long time. The lips
are shapeless and thick, the nose somewhat flat and not yet grown up in a
sense.' ... 'Their ["negroes"'] stories, their views on the world and
creation are somewhat childish. In childish simplicity they worship their
gods.' The chapter on the black race concludes: 'After being dominated for
centuries, the negroes are now developing on their own; however, this goes
with big problems and bloody wars.'

In my class, there was not a single non-European pupil. Usually, children
of more highly educated and more affluent Europeans go to Waldorf school.
So, I think: how would things be, had we had a black class mate, making it
possible for us to test directly the theory, whether he really had 'a
childish expression' on his face?

At a certain point, my defense of the school changes into pure anger. How
dare they indoctrinate me with this? And why did the government and its
inspectorate of education, not finish this? An anger, which only increases,
when today Anthroposophists, including a former teacher, keep defending
this by hook and by crook."